August 16th, 2009

Ashley Beedle

I just love hearing the story of the rise of Acid House, which Ashley Beedle played a role in. He was really interesting to talk about his take on the global club scene,  I especially think his comments about the press’ reaction to ‘new disco’ particularly poignant.

He is also one of the founding members of X-Press 2. If you have any passing interest in electronic music I recommend you check them out.

Winston Reed: How did you initially become interested in DJing, I know you were involved with acid house but I guess I’m wondering about what got your interested before that?

Ashley Beedle: I think it was my 15th birthday my dad bought me my first pair of decks. Before acid house came along I was involved with the reggae sound systems in London, which was quite vibrant in the late 70s and early 80s. From there I kinda progressed into playing soul and hip hop and then the house scene came along.

WR: How did you get interested in house music?

AB: Certain records started to filter through in the mid 80s, the sound was so different you know. A lot of it was coming out on the Trax label. In London especially we had the Watson Brothers , Noel and Morris, who had a club in London called Delirium, which was one of the first to sort of feature house music . They were very influential on DJ’s like myself. Plus there were the first warehouse parties. They were kind of part of the rare groove scene, but they also played a bit of reggae or rockabilly. The house records started to filter through so they also played early house music. It (house music) was coming at you from different directions.

WR: So it was a progression rather than an overnight change?

AB: It was definitely a progression; it wasn’t a leap from nothing. Also the music press was very influential in kind of breaking the Chicago house scene into the UK. Funnily enough the rock magazine NME , which had a really good editorial, did a massive feature on Chicago house.

WR: Now they hate electronic music unless it’s new rave or whatever like the Klaxons?

AB: They hate house now, ha-ha.

WR: As an internationally touring DJ your sort of have a unique perspective on the global club scene, so I wonder how you think it compares to the acid house era?

AB: When the acid house scene was big there wasn’t a lot of travelling overseas involved. All the good clubs were in the UK. It was only later on, like the very early 90s, when I started to get booked to play mainly Europe, Italy and Germany places like that. Once you went to these countries you saw their take on house music. Once you start travelling around you play certain records that influence them, and they influence you. Then you have this sort of traffic, if you like, of all these different sounds. It becomes a bit of a melting pot.

WR: I was wondering what your opinion is on the recent interest in new disco and disco edits at the moment?

AB: I think it’s cyclic. I try to distant myself from trends. I mean some journalists may write “Ashley Beedle he is really into disco revival”, but the thing is I have been into disco thing since Disco. To me it has always been a great thing to play disco, because house music and disco are so linked. House music is the “bastard son of disco”. I look upon the “new disco” not with skeptical eyes but I don’t like the term.

WR: How did you transition from being a DJ to a producer, was that something that you always wanted to do?

AB: Very personally, I was always involved with musicians from a very young age. It was always something I always wanted to do and I think my growing as a producer; house music made it really easy. Yeah! I can go and make this record I have the machines to do it. That made it easier for people like myself to embrace producing records. From there it kinda spreads I’m into a lot of different stuff, it made it easy for me to branch out from producing electronic music to producing bands and different genres. It was something that I actively sought to do.

WR: You have recently had a best of compilation released last year for X-Press 2, I was wondering if there were any plans in the works to do the same for your Black Science Orchestra project?

AB: Walters’s Room has just been reissued by JBO with bonus tracks. It’s become a bit difficult because there has been stuff that has come out on JBO and then stuff that has come out on my own label Afroarts. So at a later date if I can get the politics out of the way it would be nice to do a Best Of cause there are some interesting tracks.

Winston | 3 Comments

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